A Bible lesson by Ivor Jefferies
1. What does the world say about who we are as human beings, and what does the Bible say?
Read Dan. 4:33, Isa. 47:10, Gen. 3:5, 1:26-28.
2. What does it mean and not mean to be created in the image of God?
Read Gen. 1:26-28, Col. 3:9-10, 1:15, Rom. 8:29 and Ps. 82:6-7, Deut. 4:12, 15-16, Acts 17:29.
3. How do we differ from animals in the following areas:
- Morally (Rom. 1:32, 2:14-15)?
- Spiritually (Eccl. 3:11, Rom. 1:20)?
- Mentally (Neh. 5:7, Ps. 77:6, Hag. 1:7)?
- Creatively (Gen. 4:21-22)?
- Relationally (Gen. 2:24, 3:7, 5:22, 24, 1 Cor. 12:12, 26-27)?
- Position or rank (Ps. 8:5-8)?
4. How did the Fall of Adam distort God’s image in us?
Read Gen. 4:8, 5:3, 6:5, Rom. 1:28, Eph. 2:1, 2 Pet. 2:12.
5. What is God’s remedy to restore his image in us?
Read 1 Cor. 15:45-49, 2 Cor. 3:17-18, Eph. 4:22-24, 1 John 3:2.
6. How does God’s restored image help those with self-identity issues?
Read John 1:12-13, 1 Cor. 6:9-11, 2 Cor. 5:17, 21.
7. How does a biblical view of man change the way we treat others?
Read Lev. 19:32, 24:17-21, 2 Sam. 9:9-13, Ps. 139:13-15, Acts 10:34-35, Eph. 5:22-6:9, Jas. 3:9, Gen. 9:6.
“To be ‘cured’ against one’s will, and cured of states which we may not regard as disease, is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals. But to be punished, however severely, because we have deserved it, because we ‘ought to have known better’, is to be treated as a human person made in God’s image.” (C.S. Lewis).1
8. Ultimately, why did God create us in his own image?
Read Isa. 43:7, Rom. 8:29.
1 John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1986, 2006), 120.